Open Source Schools

http://gravit.slowchop.com/

Simulate Gravity doesn’t mean being able to walk to the shops like you’re Neil Armstrong on the moon.  Its a clever application to model the gravitational effects of sub-atomic particles, so useful for Physics students perhaps but another of its selling points is that it "looks pretty"

Having the some excellent software is one thing! but using it productively is quite another, there are some very good tutorials on the web, though I do find having a dual monitor setup very helpful to actually follow them.

I’ve used some of the tutorials below to help me get to grips with some of the finer points of openoffice.

http://www.kaaredyret.dk/openoffice_links.html#Writer

http://reprap.org/wiki/Main_Page

After using Linux for a few years now, I still regard myself as a newbie, so I’m always grateful to find guidebooks, particularly free ones.

A New Zealand high school is now using entirely open source software.

"The 230-pupil school was set up to follow open learning principles, offering large "learning commons" areas where multiple classes interact rather than conventional classrooms and setting aside one day each week for pupils to work on self-driven research projects."

There is quite a lively debate going on about the headline claim in the comments section over at the source of this story at  http://www.cio.com.au.

In Kerala, India, students in grades 5-12 are offered an Information Technology curriculum, which teaches movie production, screenplays, script writing, and other movie related skills.  The school district in Kerala has approved the use of OpenShot Video Editor, a free, open-source video editor (http://www.openshot.org), for completlng their tasks.


They are also offering OpenShot training to their teachers, and encouraging the teachers to use OpenShot for any classroom related video projects.

Today is the first day of sales of the Open PC – you can learn more about the product here http://blog.karlitschek.de/2010/12/open-pc-starts-not-with-one-or-two-but.html

www.inngot.com have issued a baseline report about the IP and Open Source Beacon Project which has today published the first part of its work in the shape of a baseline report.

The Industry standard video editor "Lightworks" is now on the way to being open sourced for Windows and can be downloaded from :

http://www.lightworksbeta.com/ registration needed. Lightworks is every bit as powerful as Final Cut Pro, Avid etc and has won awards for the quality of the software. This is an excellent move. A Linux version will be available in 2011.